Superior's Calmante neighborhood back in action after long delay

Construction on the newest townhome five-plex got underway in January

Daniel Gutierrez works Thursday on the foundation of one of the units at Superior's Calmante project, which had been dormant for four years. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

SUPERIOR — - The earthmovers hadn't moved in more than four years at the corner of McCaslin Boulevard and Coalton Road. But they're moving now.

Construction of high-end townhomes, part of the Calmante development that went dormant in 2009 due to foreclosure and financing challenges, has resumed in earnest. Crews are pouring the foundation for a new townhome five-plex and David Sinkey, president of Louisville-based Boulder Creek Neighborhoods, said a second building will get underway next month.

"The market in general has come back to the point where we think the initial concept is now buyable again," he said.

That concept is an urban-style patio home with lots of room — typically 3,000 square feet — and sweeping views of open space to the west. The units are targeted to young professionals and empty nesters who don't want the burden of yard work and landscape maintenance but want easy access to biking and hiking trails.

Calmante homes will price from $570,000 to the $700,000 level, depending on options and add-ons. Buildout calls for 65 units spread across 13 complexes.

While Sinkey wouldn't put a completion year on the project, he said demand right now is strong for the product, with more than 100 RSVPs to an informational meeting on Calmante last week. He expects model homes to open in late summer with the first residents moving into their new homes in September.

"We'll build to the sales rate," he said.

That wasn't the case just a year ago, when not only were there no sales to be had but there was no project to sell. Calmante had fallen victim to dried-up financing, a foreclosure, and the FDIC closure of previous project owner FirsTier Bank of Colorado.

Boulder Creek Neighborhoods bought the property for $4.4 million last June, after having built the first two complexes in 2008 and 2009 as a contractor. The firm is behind the hot-selling Steel Ranch development in Louisville and the popular Kingsbridge community in Longmont.

Superior Town Manager Matt Magley said everything seems to be happening at once in the community of 12,500, with Calmante back in action and the long-awaited Superior Town Center breaking ground at the north end of town.

"It's a little surreal because we didn't have a lot of construction for a few years," he said. "It's kind of all or nothing, it seems like."

Magley said Superior is left with a few small parcels of developable land around town, including the parcel at the northeast corner of Coalton Road and McCaslin Boulevard, just north of Calmante. There's also a 12 to 15-acre parcel just east of 88th Street that could go residential, he said.

But for the most part, Calmante and Superior Town Center will account for much of what the town has to offer in terms of prime shovel-ready real estate.

Sinkey sees the construction activity that started back up again in January as the full circle completion of a community that got stopped dead in its tracks, through no fault of its own.

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